4 years ago on our River Cruise our ship docked in Cochem. We were split into two groups and ours went to a wine tasting. Wine at nine does me fine! Castle at twelfths lol no rhyme sorry.

It had been pouring with rain all morning. Our bus was allowed to park a bit closer to this impressive castle. The cobblestone’s were extremely slippery as we climbed up the steep road to the castle. There was nothing to hang onto and you had to be careful as there were many umbrellas ready to poke your eyes out!

The castle sits on a hill roughly 300 feet above the Mosel River, towering over the town of Cochem.  The castle was built around the 12th Century, however the castle that is there today is not the original castle.  In 1689 French  King Louie XIV – the French SunKing ordered his troops to destroy it. It was set alight and blown up on May 19th 1689.

For 180 years the castle sat on the hill in ruins. Then a wealthy businessman from Berlin, Louis Raven decided to buy the ruins and rebuild the castle in 1868.

The original Castle was Romanesque style, Louis Raven created a neo-Gothic castle that would be a summer residence for his family.

There are a couple of original Towers in Romanesque style one being the Witches Tower,said to be where they tried woman for witchcraft and threw them out of one of the upper windows. I was probably thrown out one of those windows in a past life! Could be why I don’t like heights .

Once inside the castle we climbed tight staircases that would enter into a maze of rooms. Some were big others so small that I just kept walking into the next room. The castle was full of tourists all trying to get a glimpse of this amazing place. I would love to go back when its not full on tourist season to really get a feel of castle.

One of the rooms went out on to a balcony with an amazing view over the Mosel River and valley and the town of Cochem. You wanted to stay and admire the view and take as many photos as you could. Then you hear your guide announce “Please only 12 people at a time on the balcony its not safe! Eek we were back into the main room before she could say “not safe for any more people” .

As we wandered around each room clicking the camera trying to hear and understand the guide, I could feel the floor move underneath me. Once outside I asked my sisters if they felt the floor shaking , they said yes, phew so it wasnt my Meniers after all!

We had an amazing time at Cochem Castle but now it was time to head down that slippery wet cobblestones to the town below. If we thought it was bad going up, it was even worse going down. There were literally hundreds making their way up that slippery slope and even more heading back down. With gritted teeth and head down so as not to get one of those pretty umbrella spokes in our eyes. I happened to look up for just a short moment and saw Paula at the bottom of the road waiting for all of us. Paula had literally run down! Somehow none of us slipped or fell on our bottoms. We all made it in one piece.

Some were going to be taken back to the town via the bus, however a few of us **would continue the walk into town with our guide.

** Moselle River or Mosel River – so the first is the French spelling and the second is German. **

** In the featured photo you can see the Castle above the town, there is a misty cloud slightly covering it.**